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DEL MAR — Sometimes the toughest part of owning a horse is deciding what to name it. If you own a bunch of horses, you run out of logical names pretty quickly. You can only do a play on the sire’s name so many times. And if you name it after a living person, you need permission from that person.

But every once in a while happenstance is your guide.

Ned Toffey has been the general manager of Spendthrift Farm for 21 years. Spendthrift saw an Into Mischief colt it liked and bought the yet unnamed colt as a yearling for $650,000. Now the tough part, naming him.

Toffey had just completed an interview with a publication and it was trying to promote it on social media. The only problem is they got a couple of first letters transposed and sent out posted a message on X calling the longtime Spendthrift executive Ted Noffey. Innocent mistake. Once notified it was corrected but not before a few screenshots were taken.

John Velazquez smiles after riding Ted Noffey to victory in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile horse race in Del Mar on Friday.

(Gregory Bull / Associated Press)

Noffey went with the joke.

Now people will remember that colt as the winner of the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, pushing his name to the top of Kentucky Derby future pools.

His win wasn’t a surprise as he has won all four of his races, but none this prestigious on the first day of the two-day Breeders’ Cup held at Del Mar. All five of the races on Friday were worth no less than $1 million with nine more on Saturday.

Ted Noffey, the horse, was the favorite and was within a length of the lead all the way around the 1 1/16-mile race for 2-year-old males, winning by a length.

“It pretty much unfolded like we thought it would,” said trainer Todd Pletcher. “I’m just glad that he was able to keep finding more.”

Brant, the $3 million purchase for trainer Bob Baffert, went to the lead and was in front until the top of the stretch when Ted Noffey inched past and then kept going. He ended up winning by a length over Mr. A.P.

“I was happy with the trip, [Brant] just got tired,” Baffert said. “The lack of two turns caught up with him. He was beat by a real good horse, and they ran really fast. I think he will move up off this race.”

Brant finished third and Baffert’s other horse, Litmus Test, finished fourth. Ted Noffey was the favorite and paid $3.60 to win .

The other $2 million race, the Juvenile Fillies, was won by Super Corredora ($19.60 to win), whose last race was a maiden win, the only time this has happened in this race.

Southern California based John Sadler had to go 42 races before he won his first Breeders’ Cup race in 2018 when he won the Classic with Accelerate.

“My journey has been, there was a time when they’d say, he’s the best trainer that hasn’t won a Breeders’ Cup,” Sadler said. “They stopped asking that after Accelerate. So we’ve won quite a few of them now. So, I’m very pleased with that.

“And as you’re an older trainer, which I am at this point (he’s 69), these are the races you want to win. I think I hold most of the categories here at Del Mar, right behind Baffert—number of wins, number of stakes wins and money earned. The big days are especially rewarding.”

The 2-year-old filly led the entire 1 1/16 mile race and was the front half of a Southern California exacta with Baffert’s Explora finishing second. Hector Barrios was the jockey and it was his first Breeders’ Cup win with a three-quarters of a length victory.

The first race of the day, the $1 million Juvenile Turf Sprint, was won by Cy Fair ($12.00), a horse named after a high school in Texas and trained by George Weaver. Everyone gave Aidan O’Brien a good shot to win the five-furlong race since he had three horses in the race and his next win would give him 21, the most ever, breaking a tie with the late Wayne Lukas.

O’Brien had to wait for the last race of the day, the $1 million Juvenile Turf over one mile to pick up No. 21. Gstaad ($4.40) was the favorite and didn’t disappoint coming off the pace at the top of the stretch and winning by three-quarters of a length.

The other Breeders’ Cup race of the day, the $1 million Juvenile Fillies Turf, was won by Balantina ($43.20) by 1 ¼ lengths, the largest margin of the day. She came from well off the pace in the one mile race with a strong stretch drive for trainer Donnacha O’Brien, Aidan’s son.

The first day of the Breeders’ Cup is all 2-year-old races, but Saturday is where all the money is, $23 million in purses to be exact. It’s headed by the $7-million Classic, a 1¼ mile race for horses of any age or sex. The race, and the whole event, took a major blow when Sovereignty, the Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes winner and top-ranked horse in the country, was scratched after he spiked a fever early in the week. He was the 6-5 morning line favorite.

Everyone was looking forward to the rematch of Sovereignty and Journalism (5-1 adjusted odds), who finished one-two in both the Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes. McCarthy, who trains Journalism and owner Aron Wellman replaced jockey Umberto Rispoli after they didn’t like his ride in the Pacific Classic. Jose Ortiz picked up the mount.

“I think it’s unfortunate that Sovereignty is not in there but this is probably one of the best Classics we’ve seen in about 20 years,” McCarthy said. “We’ll bounce out of there and try and be tactical and try to be within four or five lengths of the lead.”

There should also be some interest in Fierceness (5-2), who won the Pacific Classic after a terrible break when he ducked near the rail breaking from the one. He drew the one for this race too.

“He’s got to break straight and establish the position he wants and run his race,” trainer Todd Pletcher said. “His best race gives him a big chance, if he can deliver that.”

Among others in the race are Santa Anita-based Baeza (10-1), who won the Pennsylvania Derby; Japanese horse Forever Young (7-2), winner of the Saudi Cup; last year’s winner Sierra Leone (7-2); and Nevada Beach (20-1) for Baffert and winner of the Los Alamitos Derby and the Goodwood Stakes at Santa Anita.

Another race to watch on Saturday is the $5-million Turf in which Rebel’s Romance is trying to become the first three-time winner of this race and the third horse to ever win three Breeders’ Cup races, joining Goldikova and Beholder.

Aug. 28 (UPI) — The Department of Homeland Security plans to introduce a new rule capping the length of stay for international students, among other visa changes, amid the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.

The new rule will stipulate that foreign students who hold F visas and exchange visitors with J visas can reside in the United States for the duration of their program, but not to exceed four years. Since 1978, foreign F visa holders have been admitted to the United States for an unspecified period, allowing them to reside in the country as long as they are enrolled as full-time students.

The Trump administration says this move will “end foreign student visa abuse.”

“For too long, past administrations have allowed foreign students and other visa holders to remain in the U.S. virtually indefinitely, posing safety risks, costing untold amounts of taxpayer dollars and disadvantaging U.S. citizens,” a DHS spokesperson said in a statement.

“This new proposed rule would end that abuse once and for all by limiting the amount of time certain visa holders are allowed to remain in the U.S., easing the burden on the federal government to properly oversee foreign students and their history.”

Trump ran on a campaign to conduct mass deportations of non-citizens, and since returning to the White House in January has cracked down on immigration.

A focus of this crackdown has been universities, with the State Department earlier this month confirming that 6,000 student visas have been revoked so far this year.

Last week, the State Department announced plans to investigate all 55 million foreigners in the country with visas.

The new rule was swiftly rebuked by international education advocates as unnecessarily creating burdens for foreign students and exchange visitors.

“These changes will only serve to force aspiring students and scholars into a sea of administrative delays at best and, at worst, into unlawful presence status — leaving them vulnerable to punitive actions through no fault of their own,” Fanta Aw, executive direct and CEO of NAFAS: Association of International Educators, said in a statement.

Miriam Feldblum, president and CEO of the President’s Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration, described the rule as “yet another unnecessary and counterproductive action” targeting students and scholars.

“This proposed rule sends a message to talented individuals from around the world that their contributions are not valued in the Unite States,” Feldblum said in a statement.

“This is not only detrimental to international students — it also weakens the ability of U.S. colleges and universities to attract top talent, diminishing our global competitiveness.”

The new measure also sets an initial admission period of up to 240 days for foreign media representatives, with the potential for an extension period of up to another 240 days, but no longer than the lengthen of their temporary activity or assignment.

Aug. 1 (UPI) — El Salvadoran lawmakers voted to abolish presidential term limits as part of constitutional reforms that could allow the country’s populist president, Nayib Bukele, to remain in power indefinitely.

Under the reformed electoral system, the previous five-year term is increased to six years and a restriction limiting presidents to a single term is removed, allowing El Salvador’s executive to run for office an unlimited number of times.

Members of Bukele’s New Ideas Party in the Legislative Assembly voted through the reform on Thursday, 18 months after Bukele won a second term in a landslide victory, despite a constitutional prohibition on consecutive terms. The Supreme Court, packed with pro-Bukele justices, waived the ban on grounds that it infringed Bukele’s human rights.

Opposition politicians and human rights organizations condemned the move, saying it removed one of the last remaining checks on power and brought the country a step closer to becoming a one-party state.

“Today, democracy has died in El Salvador,” said opposition Republican National Alliance MP Marcela Villatoro.

Human Rights Watch said it was a power grab by Bukele aimed at ushering in a dictatorship.

“He’s very clearly following the path of leaders who use their popularity to concentrate power to undermine the rule of law and eventually to establish a dictatorship,” said HRW Americas deputy director Juan Pappier.

Cristosal, El Salvador’s leading human rights organization, which fled the country for Guatemala two weeks ago citing threats and intimidation against its staff, criticized the lack of process and the way the change was rushed through.

“The day before vacation, without debate, without informing the public, in a single legislative vote, they changed the political system to allow the president to perpetuate himself in power indefinitely and we continue to follow the well-travelled path of autocrats,” said Cristosal executive Noah Bullock.

Bukele’s popularity mainly stems from a crime crackdown, targeting gangs in particular, that has seen El Salvador transformed from one of the most violent nations in the world to one of the safest in the region.

However, he is a divisive figure among Salvadorans.

His policies, including the use of emergency powers to detain as many as 75,000 people without due process, have drawn fire from human rights groups such as Amnesty International, which has said El Salvador was engaged in a “gradual replacement of gang violence with state violence.”

The United States got pulled into questions around El Salvador after Maryland resident Kilmar Abrego Garcia, an undocumented Salvadoran migrant, was detained in one of Bukele’s notorious ‘mega prisons’ after being wrongly deported to El Salvador in violation of a 2019 court order that said he could not be deported there.

He was among a group of 261 inmates imprisoned in one of the huge penal facilities after being deported by the Trump administration, who it said were either members of the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang or the Salvadoran-dominated MS-13.

Abrego Garcia, who was accused of being a member of the MS-13, was returned to the United States in June at the request of the Justice Department to face federal migrant smuggling charges in Tennessee.

BALTIMORE — Trainer Bob Baffert loves to come to the Preakness. He loves the fact that all the top horses are in the same barn, so he can kibitz with his fellow trainers, such as an extended conversation with Mark Casse about the best crabcakes in town. He loves the casual atmosphere, in contrast to the high stakes, high pressure feeling at Churchill Downs for the Kentucky Derby.

Or maybe it’s because he’s won the second leg of the Triple Crown eight times, more than any other trainer in history.

So, he was asked why he was bringing Goal Oriented, an undefeated two-time starter who has never run in a stakes race, to the Preakness.

“FOMO,” Baffert said with a laugh, referring to the acronym for “fear of missing out.”

Make no mistake, Baffert doesn’t run a horse in a race this big just because he likes the crabcakes.

Baffert had actually planned to also run Rodriguez in the Preakness. Rodriguez, the easy winner of the Wood Memorial, was supposed to run in the Kentucky Derby but scratched because of a sore hoof. He was being pointed to the Preakness. But that didn’t work out either.

“[Goal Oriented] ran well, and he worked well and came out of [the race on the Derby undercard] really well,” Baffert said. “I was thinking Rodriguez. But, I didn’t get to train him. It took me a long time. I put in a whole week to get that foot right, and then I breezed him.

“But I really think [Goal Oriented] is a bigger, stronger horse, and I think Rodriguez was not quite ready. I’d rather just shoot for the Belmont with him. He’s a lighter horse.”

No one, including Baffert, knows how good Goal Oriented is. He is the fourth favorite on the morning line at 6-1. But, given that he’s trained by Baffert, will likely go off at lower odds.

“Oh, we don’t know, [how he’ll run],” Baffert said. “We’re just going to throw him in there. He’s handled everything here. He handled the ship, and he handled Churchill, came back like it was nothing. I can tell after they win. In the winner’s circle, he just stood there, stoic, didn’t even take a deep breath. He was like, ‘Hey, that’s it?’ I like that. Some horses come back and they’re blowing (breathing heavy), they’ll blow your hat off. He wasn’t that. He handled it pretty well. We’ve always been very high on him.”

Goal Oriented, a $425,000 purchase for the same ownership consortium that also has Rodriguez and Citizen Bull, ran his first race on April 6 at Santa Anita, winning by 3 ¼ lengths. His second race was on the undercard on Derby day, winning an allowance on three-quarters of a length.

“He’s an eyeful, he’s handsome, he’s beautiful,” said Tom Ryan, who heads the ownership group. “He’s a May 15 baby who is just now coming into his own. He hasn’t done anything wrong. He’s gone short, he’s gone long, he’s handled the slop.

“We don’t run in Grade 1s just to have a look at a horse. We think he’s in form and deserves a shot. He has to improve for sure. He’s been great in the morning and now we’re hoping he can continue it to the afternoon.”

Goal Oriented certainly looks like he is in form, but the question remains what specifically is his form and style.

“We don’t even know his style,” Baffert said. “We put him on the lead because of the mud [at Churchill Downs] and we didn’t want to mess around. [Jockey Flavien] Prat knows him now. He’s got tactical speed, but he doesn’t have to be rushed off his feet. He’s a big strong horse.”

Baffert doesn’t claim to have any super secret key to his success at the Preakness.

“I had the best horse,” Baffert said simply. “You have to have the best horse to win. And that’s usually the best secret a trainer can have in these big races is if you have the best horse.”

He won his first Preakness in 1997 with Silver Charm. His other winners were Real Quiet (1998), Point Given (2001), War Emblem (2002), Lookin at Lucky (2010), American Pharoah (2015), Justify (2018) and National Treasure (2023).

This will most likely be the last time Baffert runs at Pimlico as it is currently constructed. The track is scheduled to be torn down almost immediately after Saturday’s race and the Preakness will move to nearby Laurel for two years during the rebuild.

The track surface and configuration will pretty much be the same. However, the place where the fans watch the race will be very different.

Baffert was more concerned that the stakes barn will remain. It will but it’s unclear if the same structure will remain or if a new barn will be built

“I like this barn,” Baffert said. “I would like to take this barn to Santa Anita.”

On Baffert’s long list of accomplishments, that’s one he may fall short on.